Split views & Layouts

Partly availableSome of what this page describes is in DimSum today and some is still coming. Parts marked Coming are designed but not built yet.

Show two pages at once, side by side or stacked in the main window, or pop one out to a second monitor. Each has its own zoom, and they share one armed tool, one selection and one Undo.

Naming: a saved arrangement of panes and panels is a Layout. The Tabs are Takeoff / Estimating / Reports / 3D. Workspace now means only the company/license account with its seats (Licensing).

Overview

Estimators constantly compare sheets: the floor plan against the framing plan, the main level against the second level, the plan against its elevation. DimSum lets you split the canvas so two pages are open at once, each at its own zoom.

• Two panes plus one pop-out window. Three and four panes, and saved Layouts, come later.
• One armed tool for both panes. The first click into the other pane only focuses it.
• Two fixed splits, side by side and stacked. The 3-pane, 4-grid and custom splits, and Vivaldi-style tiling of page tabs, are later.

Where to find it

• View menu: One pane (Alt+1), Two panes side by side (Alt+2), Two panes stacked, Pop out pane and Dock back. When the ribbon comes, these move to its View tab.
• The canvas tool strip, three buttons: One pane; Two panes (click it again to switch between side by side and stacked); and Pop out pane, which reads Dock back while the pop-out is open.
• The Project Tree: click, middle-click, drag or right-click a page (below).

How to use it

Split the canvas

1. Press Alt+2, or View → Two panes side by side. The canvas splits into two panes, left and right. For one above the other, pick View → Two panes stacked, or click the tool strip's Two panes button again.
2. The new pane, on the right (or bottom), takes the focus, so the next page you click in the tree opens there. It opens on the page it had when it last closed, or, the first time, on the page you're looking at.
3. Drag the divider between them to resize. Or click it and use the arrow keys (Shift for bigger steps, Home / End for the ends). Each pane keeps at least 15%.
4. Back to one pane: Alt+1, View → One pane, or the tool strip's One pane. The focused pane is the one that stays. The other pane's page is kept for the next split.

The divider's place and side-by-side or stacked are remembered on this computer, not with the job.

Open a page in a pane

• Click a page in the Project Tree: it opens in the focused pane.
• Middle-click a page: it opens in the other pane, and splits the canvas first if it's a single pane. With one pane and the pop-out open, the pop-out is the other pane.
• Drag a page onto a pane: it opens there, and that pane takes the focus.
• Right-click a page → Open, Open in other pane (Middle-click) or Open in new window.
• The same page can be open in both panes, at two zooms.
• Marks in the tree: with two panes (or the pop-out) on screen, each open page shows small marks after its name: 1 for the first pane, 2 for the second and ⧉ for the pop-out. The focused pane's mark is highlighted, and hovering says where it's open (Open in pane 1 and the pop-out window).

Focus: the pane you're working in

• The focused pane has an accent border, shown when there's more than one pane. Each pane also shows its page's sheet number and name in a corner.
• The first left-click in the other pane only focuses it. No point is placed and nothing is selected, even with a tool armed. The next click draws.
• The wheel zooms, and right-drag or middle-drag pans, the pane under the cursor, without moving the focus.
• Each pane keeps its own page, zoom, pan and cursor lines.

Draw across panes

• One armed tool for both panes. Arm a tool once in the Tools panel.
• A run stays in its pane. Focusing the other pane ends the run the way Enter does: everything is kept, and the tool stays armed.
• Selection is shared. Pick something in one pane and it's picked in the other, in the tree and in Properties.
• Undo is shared. There's one history for the whole job, not one per pane. Ctrl+Z works from either pane or the pop-out window.
• Page settings belong to the page. Rotation, colour and the other page tools change both panes together when they show the same sheet (Page tools).

Pop a page out into its own window

1. Focus the pane with the page you want separate, for example the framing plan.
2. View → Pop out pane, or the tool strip's Pop out pane. Or right-click a page in the tree → Open in new window.
3. The pane leaves the main canvas and opens in its own window, with its own page, zoom and pan, and it takes the focus. With two panes, the other one stays in the main window; with one, the main pane keeps its page. Drag the window to your second monitor and maximize it.
4. The window has no menu bar. It has the plan and a slim strip: a page picker, zoom out, zoom in and Fit, Snap, Ortho, Cursor lines and Dock back. The Project Tree, the Tools panel, Properties and the menus stay in the main window.
5. Draw in either window. The selection, the armed tool and Undo follow you, and so do keyboard shortcuts while the window has focus, the theme, and any change to the job. It keeps drawing while the main window is minimised.
6. Dock back (the window's strip, the tool strip or the View menu), or close the window. Its page comes back into the main window's second pane, splitting the canvas if needed. Closing the main window closes the pop-out too.

There's one pop-out window: with it open, Pop out pane says The pop-out window is already open — Dock back first to pop out another pane. The main window can still be split in two beside it.

Where it opens: the pop-out remembers its place and size on this computer. If that monitor is gone, it opens on the main window's monitor.

Put the 3D model in a pane

Coming Click a pane and use View → 2D / 3D pane toggle. The pane becomes the 3D viewport, and the 3D ribbon tab shows while it's focused. Draw in a 2D pane and the 3D pane updates at once; click an object in 3D and it's selected everywhere.

Compare two pages with Sync Views

(later) With two pages in two panes, View → Sync Views on: pan or zoom in one pane and the other follows. Until then, for "where does the wall above sit over this floor?" (placing a beam), an overlay is often faster than two panes: see Overlay & Align.

More panes and custom splits

(later) Three panes (one big plus two), a four-pane grid (Alt+3 / Alt+4), custom splits made by dragging a page to a pane's edge, and Vivaldi-style tiling of page tabs. Paste in place across panes (Ctrl+Shift+V) is later too. Today Alt+3 and Alt+4 say Three and four panes come in a later build. Alt+1 is one pane, Alt+2 is two.

Saved Layouts

(later) Arrange the panels (tree, tools, properties, pop-outs) and the canvas split the way you like, then View → Layouts → save it under a name, such as Plan + 3D or Two monitors. Switch between saved Layouts from the same button.

Options & settings

Setting	What it does	Default
Split	One pane, side by side or stacked. Three, four and custom are later	One pane
Divider	Where the two panes meet, 15–85%. Remembered on this computer, with side by side or stacked	Half and half, side by side
Pop-out window	One page in a separate window, for a second monitor. Its place is remembered on this computer	None
Focused pane	Takes page clicks from the tree, the tool strip, Page Properties and Print. It has an accent border	The pane last clicked
Per-pane state	Its own page, zoom, pan and cursor lines
Pane type	2D page view, or the 3D viewport Coming	2D
Sync Views	Links pan and zoom between panes (later)	Off
Layouts	Named, saved arrangements of panels and the canvas split (later)
Full Screen	The window fills the screen (F11)	Off

Examples

• Framing plan vs. architectural plan on two monitors: A-101 in the main window, S-101 popped out on monitor 2. Trace walls on A-101 while you read beam sizes on S-101.
• Plan and elevation: the floor plan on top and the Front Elevation below (Two panes stacked), while you take off siding per side.
• Level check: the Main Level plan left and the Second Level plan right, each zoomed into the stair, to see whether the bearing walls stack. (Sync Views, later, will keep the two in step.)
• Two zooms of one sheet: the whole floor plan at Fit on the left, and the stair zoomed right in on the right.
• Later: plan and live 3D side by side, and A-101 v1 beside v2 (with Page Versions).

Tips & shortcuts

Action	Shortcut
One pane / two panes side by side	Alt+1 / Alt+2
Two panes stacked	No key: View → Two panes stacked, or click Two panes on the tool strip again
Three / four panes	Alt+3 / Alt+4 — later. Today they say so
Pop out / dock back	No key: View menu, or the tool strip
Open a page in the other pane	Middle-click it in the tree, or drag it onto the pane
Full screen	F11
Zoom fit / to selection (focused pane)	Ctrl+0 / Z
Pan (the pane under the cursor)	Right-drag / middle-drag / Space+drag

• Panning never changes the armed tool, so you can pan mid-shape.
• The wheel and a pan act on the pane under the cursor without moving the focus. A left-click moves the focus.

Rules, limits & edge cases

• One pane is focused at a time. Tool-strip commands (zoom fit, Scale ▾, Page ▾) and Print act on the focused pane's page.
• The first click into the other pane only focuses it, even with a tool armed.
• A shape being drawn stays in its pane. Focusing the other pane ends the run, as Enter does.
• There's one Undo, shared by both panes and the pop-out.
• Two panes and one pop-out window at most.
• The same page can be open in both panes at different zooms. Its page settings (rotation, colour) show in both.
• A pop-out on a monitor that's since been disconnected opens on the main window's monitor.

Not yet

• No frame cap on the pane you're not using. The design asked for at most 20 redraws a second there; today both panes redraw at full speed when they change.
• No toast saying which page an Undo was on when that page isn't on screen.

Related features

• Project Canvas layout · Project Tree
• Overlay & Align · Page tools · Page Versions
• 3D viewport
• Shared tool behavior
• Performance targets